Recon: DADDY-O'S

San Diego, CA


The Friday after Thanksgiving, instead of eating turkey leftovers, my dad and I visited San Diego's newest burger joint, Daddy-O's, over on Point Loma Blvd.  He had recently gone with a friend, so I knew when I came down for the holiday I'd be sampling the new fare.  

The decor is red, black and white with diamond plate on the walls and rat fink pieces all around. It reminded me of that song in Grease when they build the grease lightening car. I stole this phrase from the Daddy-O's website, because its accurate and I always enjoy an excessive use of adjectives, its a "hot rod, honky tonk, rockabilly, retro diner."  Thank you for summing it up so well. They have booths, regular tables, and a few bar tables.  Various TV's had football, and Fuel TV on, while the kids section had cartoons.  Don't let the thought of a kids section scare you off. I can assure you the nosier and more crowded this place is, the better an  atmosphere it will have.


We started with a chocolate malt, because why the hell not? You could taste the malt flavor nicely, but I wish they had made it with chocolate ice cream, not vanilla with chocolate syrup. (Is that common in restaurants?)  We ordered the Frings to get started. I loved the onion rings, they were crisp with good flavor. Fries were crinkle cut, and both had a lemon pepper seasoning sprinkled on. The onion rings were definitely better than the fries due to the salt/crisp factor. They bring out dip cups, but the condiments are on the table so you get to make your own sauce, which I love. They also have a ROLL of paper towels on the table.  These people KNOW the mess a big juicy burger can cause and they are prepared.  

I ordered the Honky Tonk burger, which is angus beef, caramelized onions, fried onions, american cheese, lettuce, tomato and bacon.  The two onion textures were perfection.  The fried onions and bacon gave just enough crunch and salt to balance out the tomato and caramelized onions. It's a big patty with great flavor, and it got messy mostly because of the size of the thing, not because it fell apart. They stacked their ingredients well to minimize sog from the caramelized onions. My dad ordered The Hemi, which is two 1/4lb angus beef patties, red onion, bacon, swiss cheese, cheddar cheese, lettuce and tomato.  Appropriately named. He enjoyed it immensely. Previously he had the Gonzo, which has caramelized onions and gorgonzola cheese, but when I went to order that one he told me the cheese was a little on the strong side, so if you're not into a manly cheese on your burg, I'd go another route. I couldn't finish my burger, but I ate the rest of it when I came home from bars at 2am and it held up well.  So have part of it for lunch, the rest of it for second dinner.  

I want to try The Greaser. And then I want to build my own. Customer service was fantastic; very attentive. And I was pleased to discover they offer a 'uniform discount' which applies to military servicemen and women, among others.  So, if you have a busy morning, you're hard at work and you wear yourself out and are in desperate need of a solid meal (or you're not hungry, but you're an emotional eater and just feel like gorging) head over to Daddy-O's and fill up!